Rebecca Wigglesworth

Jonathan Silverman, EdD

Areas of Expertise:

As Coordinator of the Arts in Education program, my areas of interest are arts education, aesthetic perspectives on education, interdisciplinary curriculum, creativity and foundation. I strive to help students become “more imaginative, resourceful and critically reflective practitioners.” My philosophy is that the arts offer members of society a viable way to become knowledgeable, literate and morally responsible.

Courses I Teach:

Aesthetic Perspectives on Culture and Education

Arts: The Creative Process

Educator as Artist

Student Teaching Seminar

Jonathan Silverman, associate professor and chair of education, in March traveled to Seattle to be recognized as the 2018 Vermont Art Educator of the Year by the Vermont Art Teachers Association and the National Art Education Association. Jonathan was the subject of a prominent feature story appearing in late April in Burlington weekly paper Seven Days, focused on his role as a prolific proponent for the role of art in life and learning. He is retiring at the end of the year.(posted June 2018)

Jonathan Silverman, professor and chair of education, has been named the 2018 Vermont Art Educator of the Year – an honor more typically awarded to a K-12 art teacher. Jonathan was recognized as this year’s recipient “for inspiring many Vermont art educators over his years coordinating the Arts in Education program at Saint Michael’s College and his commitment to visual literacy and the expressive power of the arts,” according to the award citation. The award was announced at the Annual Vermont Art Education Conference on Friday at Holy Family Church in Essex Junction. He will be honored at the National Art Education Conference in Seattle in March. This file photo shows him working with a student in 2012.(posted December 2017)

Jonathan Silverman, associate professor and chair of education, in August will be presenting, at the International Society for Arts Education Congress in South Korea, “ Aesthetic Inquiry of Beloved Places in Taiwan and the United States: A Collaborative Digital Interplay.” With his colleagues from National Changhua University of Education and National Chiayi University in Taiwan he will reflect on a unique collaboration between their Saint Michael’s and Taiwanese students who explored sense of places and how the spirit and humanity of place can be impacted by a digital world as well as how digital communication enhances and impedes critical and creative thinking and the process of knowing “other.”In June, Jonathan will present “An Interdisciplinary perspective of bringing ecojustice to life through curriculum” at the Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences in Tucson, AZ.He will share how a critical pedagogy of place and an artistic lens can help cross disciplinary lines when students address issues of sustainability.(posted June 2017)

Jonathan Silverman, chair of the Education Department, wrote an article, “Becoming empathic storytellers: A curriculum for developing cultural,” that was selected and now published in the book Cultural Sensitivity in a Global World: A Handbook for Teachers, He also co-authored (with Dean Jeffrey Ayres) “Sense of place and resiliency through innovative interdisciplinary curriculum” that was included in the spring, 2016 Journal of Sustainability Education.(posted June 2016)

Jonathan Silverman, professor of education, and Jeffrey Ayres, professor of political science and dean of the College, took 11 students to Wales this past summer as part of their course “Environmental Study of Sustainable Places,” helping earning the University of Wales a presitigious “Green Gown” award for the work on which they collaborated.(posted January 2016)

Jonathan Silverman, associate professor of education (department chair) and coordinator of arts in education, recently published an article, “A cross cultural collaboration exploring art literacy, creativity, and social transformation in China,” in the International Journal of Education through Art (April 2015).(posted April 2015)

Jonathan Silverman, Chair of the Education Department, contributed two presentations at the August, 2014 World Congress of the International Society for Education through Art in Melbourne, Australia. He co-led a workshop (with SMC graduate student Mami Watabe) entitled Climbing trees to explore aesthetics, narrative, diversity, and cross-cultural understanding in and through art. Climbing trees was used as a visual metaphor that sparked participants to share personal stories of cultural “otherness” and then create visual narratives of their experiences. Jonathan also presented a pecha kucha Inside/outside masks: Dialoguing diversity through the context of self and other which demonstrated how he includes the topic of “identity” into curriculum for prospective teachers.(posted December 2014)

Jonathan Silverman, chair of the Education Department, contributed two presentations at the August, 2014 World Congress of the International Society for Education through Art in Melbourne, Australia. He co-led a workshop (with SMC graduate student Mami Watabe) entitled “Climbing trees to explore aesthetics, narrative, diversity, and cross-cultural understanding in and through art.” Climbing trees was used as a visual metaphor that sparked participants to share personal stories of cultural “otherness” and then create visual narratives of their experiences. Jonathan also presented a pecha kucha, “Inside/outside masks: Dialoguing diversity through the context of self and other,” which demonstrated how he includes the topic of “identity” into curriculum for prospective teachers.(posted August 2014)

chair of the Education Department, contributed two presentations at the August, 2014 World Congress of the International Society for Education through Art in Melbourne, Australia. He co-led a workshop (with SMC graduate student Mami Watabe) entitled “Climbing trees to explore aesthetics, narrative, diversity, and cross-cultural understanding in and through art.” Climbing trees was used as a visual metaphor that sparked participants to share personal stories of cultural “otherness” and then create visual narratives of their experiences. Jonathan also presented a pecha kucha, “Inside/outside masks: Dialoguing diversity through the context of self and other,” which demonstrated how he includes the topic of “identity” into curriculum for prospective teachers.

Jonathan Silverman, associate professor of education, presented his paper and led a workshop on “Mobilizing our cultural identities through art: Communicating at the crossroads,” at the International Society for Education through Art in Lemesos, Cyprus, in June 2012. In collaboration with a former Saint Michael's College graduate student Angela Chaffee, he will present his research on “Images and languages: Integrating inclusive strategies of literacy through the arts for English Language Learners,” at the National Art Education Association annual conference in Fort Worth, Texas in March 2013. His article “Becoming empathic storytellers: Curriculum to develop cultural sensitivity,” was accepted to be a chapter in an upcoming book entitled Cultural Sensitivity in a Global World: A Handbook for Teachers. Jonathan also led a MOVE service learning trip to Immokalee, FL, in January, 2012.

"My philosophy is that the arts offer members of society a viable way to become knowledgeable, literate and morally responsible."